The use of computers with keyboards for providing input to the computer and video display tubes for seeing the information that is being put into the computer is very common. Many homes have what is called a personal computer or a home computer. Home video games are also quite common as are video arcade games. Most of the foregoing depend on an image on a screen commonly called a cursor in order to perform a specific function. For example in what is commonly called a computer typewriter a cursor is moved on a screen to indicate where a correction is to be made or the cursor may be used to select a particular mode of operation. A cursor may also be used to draw lines on a screen commonly called a video display tube. In many of the foregoing a keyboard is used to provide information to the computer. In many of these application swiftness and speed and accuracy are very desirable. For example in a computer typewriter situation the typist generally is trying to type things as fast as possible and the typing will be displayed on a video display tube which has a screen. The typist will try to make corrections as quickly as possible by moving an image on a screen such as a cursor. In the prior art this is accomplished by a device commonly called a mouse which appears to be a spherical ball which protrudes through the bottom of a housing. Pushing on the mouse will cause it to move and cause the ball in it to rotate which in turn will cause an image on a screen to move. The mouse has no inherent up, down, left or right sense of direction since it is a sphere and it can be rotated in any direction. This makes it very difficult to use in a typing situation where the typist is attempting to type as fast as possible while looking at a screen without looking at the mouse. The typist would have to move the mouse in several directions before finally getting the cursor to the desired point. Other prior art devices used in a typewriter situation include buttons that can be pushed to cause movement of the cursor. For example one button could be pushed to provide up direction while another button could be pushed to provide down direction and so forth. The use of buttons does not allow the typist to speed up the process since the movement of the cursor will be either constant or depend on tapping of the button.
Another prior art device is the stick that protrudes up from a base. The stick is generally moved forward to cause the cursor to move up and the stick is moved to the left to cause the cursor to move to the left as is commonly done with many home video games.
All of the prior art devices that control the position of an image on a screen are inconvenient to use because they are located at a remote point such as the mouse is which makes them difficult to use. In particular where one wishes to draw on a screen such as a video display tube using a cursor as the point that causes the line to be drawn it is very difficult to use a mouse to draw a straight line because it is difficult to cause a sphere to move in a straight line. In other types of devices in the prior art it is equally difficult to draw a precise distance using a stick or a pushbutton because one must estimate how long the stick must be pushed up to cause up movement of the cursor or how long the button must be pushed to cause the movement desired which results in it being almost impossible to precisely draw a line of desired length.
Thus there are positioning systems in the prior art for positioning images on a screen however each has serious drawbacks. There does exist in the prior art means for detecting movement of the invention herein and microprocessors that may be coupled to the means for detecting movement wherein the microprocessor interprets the movement detected and means for displaying the microprocessor's intrepretation on a screen. However, there is nothing in the prior art like the invention herein that provides the movement that can be detected by devices in the prior art.
It is unknown whether any of the prior art devices referred to herein have been patented and the inventor of the invention herein does not have possession of any written materials describing any of the prior art devices discussed herein such as the mouse, the stick or the pushbuttons. Since such devices are available for sale written materials describing them may exist.